


Factionless are a faction in their own right

by dociswaldo



Category: Divergent - All Media Types, Red vs. Blue
Genre: Divergent AU, Sporadic Updates, idk - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-01
Updated: 2017-06-01
Packaged: 2018-11-07 15:29:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 474
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11061864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dociswaldo/pseuds/dociswaldo
Summary: Wash flunks Dauntless initiation, and is accidentally adopted by Caboose and co.





	Factionless are a faction in their own right

Wash stared at his hands. They didn’t shake. He felt like they ought to shake. He should be shaking.He’d been shaking for the past week and a half. Instead, everything was just... floaty? Fuzzy? Disconnected, was the point, and he almost didn’t register the hands on his shoulders, his faction-mates saying goodbye- former faction-mates, not anymore, not since he’d failed, let his fear and memories bleed over into himself until he couldn’t breathe. Isaac was rumbling, couldn’t speak since that horrible spar gone wrong, and Carolina was turned away, turned away from her failure of a trainee, and Wash was dragged out of the room, through narrowing, suffocating rock tunnels and the pit that was suddenly so large his head spun, out into the sun and he can’t see, can’t focus- 

The Dauntless leave him in the city, not quite to the Factionless quarter, but close enough that no one who sees the lone boy- child, really, alone in that sector will mistake him as a Dauntless, even with his dark clothes and the tattoo that was just a dare from the twins who chose faction and blood.

He’s hyperventilating. He knows this, and can’t make himself stop. He tries, he really does, but over a week of what amounts to emotional and psychological torture and Wash is scraped raw. He kneels in the dirty street, soft ground littered with concrete doing its best not to yield to his weight. He swallows and counts and starts walking when he can without spiraling.

He’s only a short ways into the Factionless quarter- his quarter- when he’s stopped by a boy a few years older than he is. The boy is huge, but not as big as Isaac, not by a long shot. The boy is vaguely familiar, but Wash can’t quite pin down why, not until he opens his mouth and “Why, HELLO Goliath Bathtub! I am very glad to see you! DO YOU LIKE CATS?” Wash blinks and he’s back in the orchards, trying to explain he’s David, they aren’t supposed to know the old stories of giants and what’s a bathtub, again? Oh. Yeah. This guy. He squares his shoulders. He can do this. Sure, the guy got kicked out because he accidentally crushed the shift supervisor’s legs, but whatever. He almost made it through Dauntless initiation, he can definitely survive a conversation with this guy. 

“It’s Michael, right?” Michael beams. Sunlight spews from his face, reflecting off his startlingly bright teeth. “Yes! That is me! But you can call me Caboose! That is what my friends do!” Oh boy. “That’s great, buddy. Uh, hey, so, where are you staying?” Maybe this guy’ll forget to stay and wander off and Wash’ll get his spot. Wash really, really hopes so. He doesn’t want to spend anymore time defenseless and out in the open.


End file.
